Beyond Earth
by Cybran
Summary: Since the earliest of civilisations, we have made much progress. But that progress, it came at a cost. Our world has...changed. And despite our advances in both science and technology, we can no longer deny what is clear: Our time on Earth is ending. So we turn our gaze upward, to the stars, and embark on the greatest journey in human history. A journey into the unknown.
1. Prologue

**Hello! This is my first fic in this site, and while I've been toying around with the idea of writing a story for a while, just recently I decided I could try it out. So there may be mistakes and plot holes and whatnot, reviews are welcomed.**

**Disclaimer: This story follows closely with Beyond Earth's canon, but the faction is entirely fictional and inspired by a mod. I won't stray too far from canon though. However, even if you don't know the game itself it won't be that much of a problem as this more or less can be read as a stand-alone story.**

**-Cy**

**Posted on 10/5/2019**

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_In the twilight of Earth's great civilisations, we were chosen. Some were selected for their skills; others for their strength; and some, by luck. The great ships were the embodiment of each nation's ingenuity, courage, and faith. And they sent us to the stars in search of a new home. As we raced skyward, we carried aloft the hopes and dreams of those left behind. _

_Our journey through deep space was long and quiet. Now, we look upon our new world for the first time. On these alien shores, our destiny awaits. A new beginning, for mankind._

_-Credited to Kavitan Thakur, quoted from The Life of the Leader_

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**High Earth Orbit, HMS Steadfast**

**2273 AD**

Wincing as the straps dig into his skin, Samir tried to adjust his body. An engineer noticed and hurried over and helped him do so, and while Samir could barely see his face through the gold-plated visor, Samir knew what he felt.

Fear.

Earth was in desperate condition. And if they did not return by half an aeon, Earth was doomed, 15 billion humans left to survive on a planet whose ecosystem was rapidly collapsing and its atmosphere quickly turning toxic. And this very man's and his descendants could very well be one of the many to suffer.

"You're all good mate, all the best." The engineer floated away, leaving Samir to his thoughts. A few moments later, his cyropod door snapped shut, locking in place.

**"Please keep your arms and legs still."**

The computer chirped as it slid a tube into his vein. Slowly, Samir's thoughts dissolved to nothing, and the world faded to black.

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**HMS Steadfast**

**High Gliese 581g Orbit**

**2389 AD**

**"Thawing completed!"**

Samir squinted his eyes at the blue light that was illuminating his pod. The door was wide open, and even after a century of disuse his eyes could make out the blurry image of two people helping him unstrap. Once the last buckle was undone, Samir collapsed to the floor, his legs unable to support his weight.

"Easy, easy." Samir merely grunted, fearing his voice would come out all gravelly. Slowly, he got up, ignoring the searing pain in his legs, his eyes getting used to the lighting. Standing in front of him was the administrator and the Lieutenant commanding the regiment of soldiers on board. "Let's get you up to speed, sir. You know the way?" Samir nodded. "Bridge, isn't it?"

Nodding, the Lieutenant let Samir weave his way through the hallways, bustling with activities as people prepared to go down to the surface. Once he was through the bridge doors, he instantly went to the window.

Nothing prepared him for the sight of a lush green ocean planet, much like Earth except noticeably flatter. When enquired about this one of the onboard scientists chipped in. "This planet is very much younger than Earth, and seems a lot less tectonically active! That means quite a little number of large mountains or canyons, but still a very exciting place." Nodding, Samir turned his gaze to the windows. Already, the first automated shuttles were sending materials and drones down to the surface. Turning around to face the bridge crew, he grinned. "Let's make ourselves a home."


	2. Chapter 1

**Note: Some quotes are fictional, and made up by me. Others will be adapted, or entirely copied.**

**My upload schedule will be very inconsistent, depending on whether I am satisfied with a chapter. It can take 3 days, or 3 weeks. I'm still in school, I have work and shit too. Either way, to anyone who follows this story I apologise if it bothers you. **

**But I hope my chapter will make up for it :D**

**-Cy**

**Posted on 20/05/19**

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_"Cherish your life — nature took a couple billion years to give you one."_

_-Anonymous_

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**Elizabeth (Capital)**

**City Population: 1,372**

**Affiliation: UKSA**

He really didn't want to do it.

But he was the mayor, and his people needed direction.

So...yeah. He had to give a speech. He started off with congratulations, thanks to the people who built their ship, before moving on to his visions, dreams, hopes of the colony itself. He then went on to explain the world geography, and plans for the city.

"This planet has 3 distinct continents, a big one in the middle and the two others at the sides smaller. As per the Seedling Accord we have arranged the scans from the Steadfast to arrange the world map into a hex grid. If you would refer to your datapads, I have sent it out to everyone. Also, you may notice that we have some alien fruit growing near us within our current 'sphere of control' and our science teams have concluded that it is edible for humans to consume. I assume all of you know the rule of claiming territory, but I'll explain it just in case. The Seedling Accord states that any city built on the planet will take 6 adjacent hexes, before claiming a maximum of 7 tiles a year. Any two separate colonies who are competing for the same tile must bid for the tile and the highest bidder wins the tile. While many of you know about the other factions and nations, you may not know this planet is to be shared. We chose this planet at a diplomatic meeting, thus I expect other faction's seeding ships to arrive any time soon, and therefore we will follow the laws of the Seedling Accord." Samir cleared his throat. "Next, I want our engineers and workers to build a plantation to start harvesting the fruit growing nearby. Our food stores are going to run out eventually." Many in the crowd nodded their assent. "Meanwhile, our science teams will start research on the chemistry of the soil here; they have collected soil samples and are looking to see how the planet evolved. There were no large-scale structures discovered in orbit, but we cannot be complacent. I want half of the CDR defending the plantation construction site, the other half to patrol the borders of the dome. We also need to build a more permanent city- the Steadfast is sending resource pods and workers down. Lets do this!" The crowd roared in response, and many started jogging off to start work. Smiling, Samir stepped off the stage.

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**Elizabeth City Borders**

**Affiliation: UKSA**

**Fruit Plantation (Under Construction)**

**_7 hours later_**

Private James Morgan, Colonial Defense Regiment

His only regret was not packing in his cigar collection into cargo.

Seriously, he needed something to pass time, and standing watch over construction workers and scientists wasn't very exciting, but he had to, because what else would he eat? And anyways, the scientists were an extra burden, cause they weren't even supposed to be here, but since they had 'contaminated samples', they had to take more. Thus, even more responsibility was put on the CDR.

And to make matters worse, the Sun, or Gliese as he should call it, was raining heat down on him.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by his sergeant next to him. "James, not the time to daydream. We gotta do our job right. You're at the edge of the defined border — the first alarm. Do your job!" Straightening up, he nodded and gave a quick "yes, sir!" as his sergeant passed by him. Holstering his rifle, he checked the safety and action of his gun. _There's nothing to goddamn do! _James mentally screamed as he shook his head, bouncing on his feet.

A soft rustling in one of the bushes near the edge of the border went unnoticed. But the green, spiny dog with yellow eyes immediately stepping out of the bush was not. Instantly, time froze. "Uh..." James stammered, his mind screaming _What's the fuck? The fuck is this!? _Frantically flipping through the mini datapad on his wrist, he muttered to himself, "Okay, okay, callsign for complex lifeforms...Star." He backed away as the green _thing_ surveyed him with curious eyes. Raising his radio, James gave a weak "Star".

After a few moments of tense silence, everyone hooked up to the radio network was bustling, each screaming their own questions and requesting James' position. "Stay **off** the net!" James heard the commanding voice of the Captain in charge, before a click was heard on his radio.

"_Private James, come in."_

_"Sir?"_

_"This is a private encrypted channel. We've got Samir on the line."_

_"You need my position, sir?"_

_"I have the location of your wristpad. I'm the Captain, Private. Stay still, and wait for me."_

James was slowly backing away from the alien, who was in turn was slowly padding towards him. He heard footsteps and turned to see the Captain and a few of his fellow marines, trailed by a gaggle of obviously very excited scientists. James have the Captain a look to say '_what are they doing here?'_, but he merely shrugged. The scientists were taking photos, chattering about how it was _oh so exciting_ to see an alien lifeform for the first time, when a few more padded out of the bush, surveying the humans with wary yellow eyes.

The scientists were obviously even more excited, and they were getting bolder, and despite repeated warnings from the Captain, his three-man guard, and James, one of them went uncomfortably close to a particular alien to place a tracker. They were already standing meters away, but he made it centimetres.

Bad move, buddy.

The alien gave a startled yelp and as it felt Dave slap a tracker on his back and scampered away, the other five of them were suddenly in a very aggressive posture. "Dave, you might want to back off..." one of his science buddies trailed off as he watched Dave get even closer to place more trackers. James noticed and tried to warn him, but before he could even open his mouth it was already too late.

The six aliens pounced on poor Dave and within seconds _mauled _him open. The marines were drawing weapons with seeming calmness, but their eyes betrayed their horror as Dave, screaming, was ripped to pieces in front of them. One of the scientists also screamed, attracting the attention of the aliens.

Apparently they were done with Dave too, and stepping over his torn and bloody body, charged the group with surprising ferocity. But this time, the Marines were ready, and the aliens were no match for the rifle fire that tore through even their tough exoskeleton.

Lowering their weapons, James heard the Captain order two of his men to lead the shaken science team away. Approaching the alien bodies surrounded by green blood, he shook his head. They had been here for less than 2 days, and already they had left a bad impression on the natives. And Dave...losing a scientist and a life always hurt, but he practically asked for it. In his excitement, he broke protocol, and lost all control. Looking up to see a team of medics running toward them with stretchers in their hands, James suddenly felt guilt. He didn't notice when Dave was getting too close, lost in his own excitement too.

He could really use a cigar right now.

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**Elizabeth (Capital)**

**City Population: 1,653**

**Affiliation: UKSA**

"Sir! The report has come in, it's on your datapad." Samir sighed and scrolled down to select it. He was on his chair, in his mayor's office, doing paperwork when the call came in from the plantation site. He even heard the about horrible first contact scenario through the radio. And Dave. He was a respected biologist, and he was young. Now, he would never truly live out his days on the planet. Losing a life was hard, but he had to be strong, for his people. They would hear the news soon. They knew the risks when they came, but that didn't mean people wouldn't be scared or angry.

The only good thing that had come out of this was the fact that they now had alien bodies to study. The city was still being built — the clinic was only 20% operational, and the half-built cold storage was already full of alien corpses. He had already directed his science teams to study them.

There was another report on his datapad. His explorers found a river running nearby, and the rich farmland would allow him to build farms to grow even more food. People were getting homesick, and their supplies didn't include everyone's comfort food. _There is no harm in saving for a rainy day, anyways, _Samir mused. _But I also need to look into our energy department. The batteries will run out eventually. _He shook his head. _So many problems._

_This is turning out to be tougher than they put in the advertising poster. _He mentally laughed at his naivety back then. _Should have known it was all propaganda. _Glancing at the clock, he pursed his lips.

Time to log off.

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**This...seems slightly off to me. I don't really know how to write these scenes without really dragging them on forever and ever, but bear with me. I'll try to improve :)**

**Also, for storytelling purposes, this planet will not be tidally locked as suspected in real life, and will have a day/night cycle.**

**Cya in the next one :D**


	3. AN

Oh no where do I start :(

I'm still writing this story, but I kinda lost focus and forgot for a while, and procrastinated a bunch... so yea. I'll try to get a chapter up within 10 days!

I'm sorry to the 2 people who follow this xD


	4. Chapter 2

**Righty ho it's another chapter!**

**I have finals coming up, and I sincerely apologise for not keeping up on my promises earlier. So, the next chapter will be about 1 to 2 months away.**

**Disclaimer: I am not following RT canon, only the vanilla game _(as I don't have RT shh I'm poor)._**

**-Cy**

**Posted on 27/9/19**

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"Wolf beetles are the dogs of this planet. We can tame them, but how long will it take? Is it even feasible?" -Log 37, Dr Emily Grant

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**Elizabeth (Capital)**

**Population: 2,500**

**Affiliation: UKSA**

Samir

_3 days later_

"Status report. Make it choppy, I have pressing issues." Samir clasped his hands together. "Please tell me you found something good."

The radio crackled with the voice of his lead explorer. _"We found a crashed satellite, sir! What do we do?"_

"Do you have an expedition package?"

_"Affirm."_

"Try and pull the satellite out, we'll get our programmers and engineers over here to try figure it out." Samir leaned back in his chair. "One last thing. Does it look human in nature?"

_"Very human. Hell, we can see the Cestus Group symbol."_

"Got it." Samir ended the conversation. "Cestus Group...Cestus Group...aha!" Samir flipped through his datapad. _Formed in 2246...certified as an independent group during the Seedling Accord. Estimated arrival on...Gliese 581g- 2368. Damn, they're late. Really late. Wonder what happened? _He pondered.

Samir swiveled around in his chair. His office was situated in the tallest building in Elizabeth, at the top floor. Looking down from his office window, he could see the currently building city, bustling with people as they scurried around. In the distance was the dome that served as a temporary shelter and base. Sighing contentedly, Samir was grateful the administrator gave him this office, as it gave him a view that allowed him to watch as the city was built around him. The clinic was already fully operational, and they were now building a memorial to commemorate their journey and their former home.

The city had been busy, using valuable energy to create a bunch of workers — the technology of fabricating new materials from other materials was still in its relative infancy. The fabricators which split protons, neutrons and electrons up in the base material to form another element required massive amounts of energy. Energy from the reserves. That was another issue; that the city, while currently still producing a surplus of electricity, would start growing so fast that it would start using more electricity than the nuclear reactor taken from the _Steadfast_ could produce.

Samir was constantly thinking ahead; it had gained him brownie points in the selection trials. The ability to visualise and plan for the future was one of the most sought after traits in the candidates, and Samir was an expert. However, he needed information.

Samir opened a radio channel to the control room his engineers used to monitor the nuclear reactor.

_"Josef? You there?"_

_"I'm here, sir. What do you need?"_

_"Do you think we can fabricate another reactor? Let's say, if we dug up enough soil from the nearby hill, could we use the fabricators to fabricate the materials necessary?"_

There was a slight pause before he answered. _"That certainly seems feasible, yes. After the fabrication we would double our energy output, even though it would take some energy to fabricate it in the first place. However, I don't think we can stabilise the nuclear fuel after fabrication. Something we might have to look into."_

Samir's winced slightly. _"The rate we are disassembling the Steadfast and sending down scrap to process for fabrication is too slow to feasibly fabricate a reactor the size of our current one within a week. There's a hill nearby that we can take soil for fabrication from, and I need flat land near us to start farming. So happens that the hill borders a river."_

_"Agreed, then. We need to assemble it and run through tests with it too. It might take a couple of weeks, give or take, after we calibrate the fabricators."_

_"Alright, do what you can. I'd also like a report every day, please."_

_"Got it, sir."_

Samir cut the link, feeling satisfied. He scrolled through his datapad to find the report sent to him from Sarah, the lead scientist of his biology team. The report they had sent was nothing short of interesting. According to them, the aliens had a special relationship a kind of spores they called miasma. They found the spores still trying to repair damage to the wolf beetles — apparently the new name for them, after their traits and behaviour — even after death. It also appeared that they had nests, and after scavenging and studying a wolf beetle brain, they discovered that all wolf beetles, and perhaps other aliens, were connected to a sort of hive mind, and they knew where all nests were. They also theorised that miasma was harmful to humans; it attacked anything that didn't have a specific gene encoded in its DNA, so artificial materials were also at risk.

However, for further study, samples were needed. Samir faltered a bit. The Seedling Accord was very specific when talking about native life — kill only if necessary. But...tranquilising them wasn't killing, merely...rendering them unable to attack for transport. He'd just have to make sure the scientists didn't get overexcited again.

He began relaying orders immediately.

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_5 hours later_

**Territory of the UKSA**

Private James Morgan

"Why are we doing this again? Man, this is crazy." James' best friend was currently crouching on the ground, hidden behind a bush as he surveyed the area, tranquliser pistol in hand.

"They need live samples, Beck." James shrugged. "Simple, anyway. Tranq a couple, get the fuck out. Let the rest of the CDR deal with the rest." A soft rustling nearby caught their attention.

"There!" James readied his tranq pistol.

A wolf beetle stepped out, surveying the clearing. It's sniffed the air before silently padded forward. "Wait..." James breathed out. Following the wolf beetle was a line of 7 others. No doubt the 10-odd men around this clearing were already on edge. James was silently waiting for the signal to engage, when, to his horror, a massive creature emerged from the back, with what seemed to be a tail that curled 3 meters above the ground. He heard Beck supress a 'fuck' and several expressions of horror and surprise coming through the radio.

Nevertheless, they had to complete the mission. He couldn't give a damn if fifty of those things came at him, the rest of the CDR was going to deal with that with the live guns. However, he wasn't prepared for one of the wolf beetles to make a loud squeal and charge directly at the bushes he was hiding in.

The wolf beetle charged with such ferocity that it knocked him over before he even got his arms up to lessen the blow. Gritting his teeth, James flipped the wolf beetle on its back and jammed the needle at the end of the tranq gun into the side of the wolf beetle. Dimly, he could hear the shouts of battle over his radio. Or was he actually hearing it with his own two ears? James mashed his finger down on the trigger, the automated dart dispensing the cocktail of drugs that would hopefully put the wolf beetle to sleep.

They didn't really think this through, did they? They were on an alien world, light-years from the rest of humanity. Of course the drugs that worked there wouldn't work here! The wolf beetle was still snapping its jaw of jagged teeth, oozing green spit onto James' uniform, who was doing all he could to hold the beetle back.

Suddenly, the wolf beetle was thrown backwards, and James could hear gunfire from behind him. Scrambling to all fours, he crawled towards the rapidly advancing CDR line, sneaking a few glances back to see wolf beetles howling in pain as splashes of green erupted from their bodies. More chilling however, were the motionless bodies wearing uniforms not unlike James' uniform. But he needed to work on the green stuff, the miasma, tearing through his uniform right now.

Reaching the line, he pulled himself upwards, helped by a fellow soldier grabbing him and hauling him towards the medical tent they had set up previously. Suddenly, a green glob came hurling in an arc, splashing a few centimetres away from two CDR soldiers. Recalling the weird creature with a long tail, James quickly relayed this information to the soldier carrying him, who proceeded to radio those who were rescuing the tranq team. _Or recovering their bodies_. James thought bitterly.

Hauling himself through the entrance of the tent, James collapsed on a chair. An orderly came and soothed him, preparing a needle. James could already feel the pain from the miasma burning through the bottom layer of the uniform, before he felt a jab and slowly slipped into a disturbed slumber.

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I'm really fucking sorry.

No excuses, I know I fucked up.

I have finals in 3 days. But... I don't wanna leave y'all hanging.

In a month or two...maybe another chapter? I can't promise a timeline. Never been good with those.

Toodles!


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